Daily driving a cheap Porsche 911 (996) - what could possibly go wrong?

In reply to oldtin:

I think there'll be a thread about it this afternoon .

Ouch! That truly sucks, but sounds like the outcome could've been a lot worse. Glad you're OK. Any crash you can walk away from...

In reply to ManhattanM (fka NY535iManual):

Indeed. I know I got really lucky that I'm posting this from home rather than a hospital bed.

Yeah, plus pulling the drivetrain and arranging shipping (assuming you sold them for enough to warrant the buy back) is a huge PITA.

I parted out my B5 S4 avant and it was a ton of work. And that was with trading the front uprights/interior to my friends shop in exchange of him pulling everything I wanted off the car! Plus I lucked out in that he had a customer who bought the motor and another who bought the tranny. Selling the powertrain paid for the buyback, then it was gravy.

In your case, I'd take the money and run.

So how much is a recently-gone-through m96 worth again? If it's a lot more than $7500 forget parting it out yourself. It only costs like $700 to ship a whole car halfway across the country. Someone looking for a good motor and odds and ends would probably be happy to ship the whole thing and deal with disassembly. The question becomes is it worth enough more than $7500 to justify the hassle of the flip. I suspect the answer for the owner in question is no.

Sucks, but most importantly glad you are okay Boxhead. And on a lighter note, now we know what can go wrong whilst daily driving a cheap 911.

In reply to Vigo:

I'm guessing that the value of the motor is somewhere around the buyback of the car. I think I may be able to come out maybe a grand or so ahead, but it'll take a long time due to my lack of time. So I guess I'm just taking the easier way out.

Tim, maybe call around to some of the Porsche shops around you and see if anyone wants the motor or has a customer that needs the motor?

Then tell them you want $8500 for it and their customer needs to pay the shop labor to remove it from the car.

Then take off whatever easy, high dollar parts that you can to sell at your leisure.

If nobody wants the motor near you, don't do the buy back, just take the cash and run.

In reply to docwyte:

I think if it was a lower mileage car, it would be worth it. But I don't think that I'll get that much for the motor alone.

And to kind of summarize my time with this car - I drove it for a little under 26k miles at a cost of $0.839 per mile.

The per mile cost includes the engine work, servicing, fuel and tires, but does exclude the purchase price.

Yeah but the engine has been refreshed...

Time for one last post in this thread, I guess, just to wrap it all up.

I did get what I consider a very fair payout from the insurance, taking into account that values of 996s have risen over the course of my ownership. Yeah, I'm still upside down due to the engine refresh, but it could've been worse financially.

Unfortunately the big rig that hit me berkeleyed off into the sunset, so CHP classified it as a hit and run. As a result I'm mentally prepping myself for a fairly unpleasant renewal quote. That's probably the only thing about this whole accident that I'm pretty mad about. Anything else - heck, I walked away from it and still get to post on here.

Sad to see it end this way Tim, as I'm sure you're 100% more so too. I suppose the big question is Would you do it over again, and if so anything differently?

I think I would do it again, although with hindsight I'd probably want a coupe rather than a convertible.

Heck, once I got the news that it would definitely be totaled I started looking for tiptronic 996 turbos, but then my wife and I decided that with my current use and miles it would make more sense to get a cheaper car that's better on fuel for right now.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if I had another 996 in the garage in 2-3 years.

BoxheadTim wrote: I decided that with my current use and miles it would make more sense to get a cheaper car that's better on fuel for right now.

Miata?

mblommel wrote:

BoxheadTim wrote: I decided that with my current use and miles it would make more sense to get a cheaper car that's better on fuel for right now.

Miata?

Got an ND that I don't want to use up driving to and from (and more importantly, in) the SF Bay Area. Part of the problem is that I currently drive about 700 miles for work a week. If I can't find anything else soon I may buy another NA or NB and one of FM's altitude compensator kits.

I'm looking at an R53 Mini JCW on Tuesday that's pretty promising so far, plus I'm also keeping an eye on this.